70 Facts About Don Sharp

Donald Herman Sharp was an Australian film director.

Don Sharp's best known films were made for Hammer in the 1960s, and included Kiss of the Vampire and Rasputin, the Mad Monk.

Don Sharp was born in Hobart, Tasmania, in 1921, according to official military records and his own account.

Don Sharp attended St Virgil's College and began appearing regularly in theatre productions at the Playhouse Theatre in Hobart, where he trained under a young Stanley Burbury.

Don Sharp studied accountancy in the evenings but this was interrupted by war service.

Don Sharp enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force on 7 April 1941 and was transferred to Singapore.

Don Sharp was invalided out before the city fell to the Japanese.

Don Sharp returned to Melbourne and recuperated at Heidelberg Hospital.

Don Sharp spent the majority of his war service in Melbourne, appearing in amateur theatre productions of Quality Street and The Late Christopher Bean as well as recorded broadcasts and ABC plays.

Don Sharp appeared in a theatre production of Interval by Sumner Locke Elliott, serving as assistant director.

Don Sharp was discharged from the air force on 17 March 1944 at the rank of corporal.

Don Sharp auditioned for and won an understudy's position in J C Williamson Limited version of the Broadway comedy Kiss and Tell; when a bout of laryngitis incapacitated one of the leads two weeks later, Sharp stepped into the role.

Don Sharp worked for Morris West's production company in radio and played a small role in Smithy, one of the few feature films shot in Australia at this time.

Don Sharp was sharing a flat with an assistant director and they decided to make their own film.

Don Sharp co-wrote Ha'penny Breeze, with a fellow Australian, Frank Worth.

Don Sharp played a leading role, did the accounts and helped with the direction.

Don Sharp got a small role in a British radio adaptation of Robbery Under Arms.

Don Sharp was unable to cash in on Ha'penny Breeze as he came down with a recurrence of tuberculosis and spent nearly two years in hospital, during which he had six ribs and one lung removed.

When Sharp recovered he got some acting roles in such films as The Planter's Wife, Appointment in London, The Cruel Sea and You Know What Sailors Are.

Several of these films were directed by Ken Annakin who Don Sharp says was particularly helpful giving him jobs when needed.

Don Sharp began to turn increasingly to writing and directing.

Don Sharp said his background as an actor was useful for his development as a director, in particular it developed his sense of timing:.

Don Sharp's career was revived when he was called in to work for Group Three, a new government-backed film company which had a brief to support new talent.

Don Sharp sold them an original script called Child's Play.

Don Sharp turned this into a novel called Conflict of Wings, the title under which it was filmed; Sharp collaborated on the screenplay with John Pudney, and did some second unit directing.

Once again, Don Sharp directed second unit, and he began to develop ambitions to direct.

Don Sharp was offered a job at Ealing Studios as a production assistant but decided to turn it down.

Don Sharp left Group Three to direct some documentaries for Pathe.

Don Sharp worked on a proposed film at Ealing about the Skeleton Coast which was never made.

Don Sharp then received an offer from the BBC to replace fellow Australian, Bruce Beeby, as an actor on the science fiction serial Journey into Space.

Don Sharp was hired by Ealing Studios to adapt the novel Robbery Under Arms into a feature film script.

Don Sharp says some of his work was included in the final script which was ultimately done by Bill Lipscomb.

Don Sharp directed a "three reeler" for Warwick Films in Rome called Arrivederci Roma.

Don Sharp received an offer to direct second unit on Carve Her Name with Pride, directed by Lewis Gilbert; Sharp was responsible for various action sequences.

Don Sharp wrote and directed The Golden Disc, starring his wife, Mary Steele.

Don Sharp was hired to do more second unit work, on Harry Black, which involved shooting tiger footage in India.

Don Sharp went into TV, becoming the resident director for the first season of Ghost Squad.

Don Sharp directed Two Guys Abroad with George Raft, which was intended as a pilot for a TV series or as a B movie, but ended up not being released at all.

Don Sharp then directed second unit on The Fast Lady for Ken Annakin.

Don Sharp received an offer from Tony Hinds of Hammer Films who had seen The Professionals and was looking for a director for Hammer's vampire movie Kiss of the Vampire.

Don Sharp had never seen a horror movie before but agreed after watching several Hammer films.

Don Sharp returned to Hammer for a swashbuckler, The Devil-Ship Pirates which starred Christopher Lee, who would make several movies with Sharp.

Don Sharp then spent several months directing second unit on Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines at the behest of director Ken Annakin.

Don Sharp reteamed with Lee for The Face of Fu Manchu, produced by Harry Alan Towers in Ireland.

Don Sharp returned to Hammer for Rasputin, the Mad Monk, with Lee playing the title role.

In contrast with Kiss of the Vampire and The Devil Ship Pirates Don Sharp said he disliked this experience working for Hammer as the budgets were being tightened.

Don Sharp made two more films for Towers, Our Man in Marrakesh, a spy spoof starring Tony Randall, and The Brides of Fu Manchu, again with Lee.

Don Sharp then made Jules Verne's Rocket to the Moon, an adventure tale in the vein of Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines for Towers.

Don Sharp said "after a couple of months of doing nothing" he returned to TV, directing some episodes of The Avengers and The Champions.

Don Sharp was hired by producer George Willoughby to direct Taste of Excitement, which then led to making The Violent Enemy for the same producers.

Don Sharp was offered The Vengeance of She at Hammer but was unable to take the job.

Don Sharp was meant to direct the feature film version of Till Death Us Do Part but clashed with Johnny Speight over the script and was fired before filming.

Don Sharp said he was "out of work for about a year" when he got an offer to direct a boat chase sequence for Puppet on a Chain, based on a novel by Alistair MacLean.

In 2007 Don Sharp said the film earned him a reputation as "The Doctor" and he was still getting royalties from the movie.

Don Sharp worked on a number of films which did not get made including Turncoat from a script by Peter Yeldham, a project with Judy Geeson called Dead, and a film in Israel for the producers of Puppet on a Chain.

Michael Carreras of Hammer asked Don Sharp to take over from Seth Holt who had died while directing Blood from the Mummy's Tomb but Don Sharp was unable as he had a contract to make the aforementioned film in Israel.

Don Sharp was put under long-term contract to a company called Scotia who assigned him to direct Psychomania, the final movie of George Sanders.

Don Sharp then developed further projects with Scotia, and worked for months on another project to be made in Israel; neither was made, nor was a proposed version of the Robin Hood story.

Don Sharp worked on the film for months before deciding to leave the project, which was ultimately never made.

Don Sharp worked on some films that were not made: a proposed film adaptation of Alistair MacLean's The Way to Dusty Death; a horror film, Croc; an adaptation of Jeffrey Archer's Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less; an adaptation of Alistair MacLean's Bear Island ; a biopic of Kim Philby.

Don Sharp received an offer to direct the fourth version of The Four Feathers, made for American TV but released theatrically in some markets.

Don Sharp then directed another remake, The Thirty Nine Steps, with Robert Powell.

Don Sharp returned to TV with episodes of Hammer House of Horror and QED.

Don Sharp developed several projects that were not made - Spy Ship; a biopic of John Simpson Kirkpatrick; Red Alert West; a film about the Spanish Civil War.

Don Sharp developed a film version of Jack Higgins' novel A Prayer for the Dying but the eventual movie was directed by Mike Hodges.

However Don Sharp was then called in to replace the original director on the mini series A Woman of Substance ; based on the novel by Barbara Taylor Bradford, and starring Jenny Seagrove and Deborah Kerr.

Don Sharp married Australian actress Gwenda Wilson in 1945, after appearing on stage with her in Kiss and Tell.

Don Sharp died on 14 December 2011, after a short spell in hospital.

Don Sharp was survived by Mary Steele, two sons and a daughter.

Don Sharp was announced for the following projects which were not made:.